Muirfield

Muirfield is the course of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, which formed in 1744 as the Gentlemen Golfers of Leith and, as a condition of receiving a trophy from the city, wrote down thirteen articles governing play. Those articles are the oldest surviving rules of golf.

The Company played at Leith, then at Musselburgh, and moved to this stretch of East Lothian in 1891, where Old Tom Morris laid out the first course. Harry Colt redesigned it in 1925 on the original ground plus fifty acres the club had bought, and it is essentially Colt’s course that is played today. It has staged the Open sixteen times, more than any venue except St Andrews and Prestwick.

What it asks of you

A par 71 of some 7,245 yards from the back, laid out as two loops of nine that run in opposite directions, the outward nine clockwise around the perimeter and the homeward nine anticlockwise inside it. The consequence is that the wind is never behind you for long and never in your face for long either, and no two consecutive holes ask the same question.

Everything is in front of you. There are no blind shots of consequence, no hidden bunkers and no tricks, which is why professionals talk about it as the fairest of the Open venues. The examination is the accuracy of each individual shot: the rough is thick, the bunkers are revetted and steep-faced, and a ball in either costs a stroke rather than half of one.

Foursomes, alternate shot, is the club’s own preferred format and it is built into the visitor day: fourballs in the morning and foursomes in the afternoon for those playing thirty-six holes. The club sets a pace of four hours ten minutes for eighteen holes and means it.

What players say about it

Visitors play on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so the review record is smaller than for a resort course but is genuine. The notes below summarise recurring themes across specialist golf sites, traveller review pages and player discussion threads. They are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course. We report what comes back repeatedly rather than isolated remarks, and we do not name or quote individual reviewers.

What comes up in its favour

• Fairness is the single most repeated compliment. Firm, demanding and entirely visible, with nothing hidden from the tee.
• The variety created by the two counter-rotating loops is admired by nearly everyone who writes about the architecture.
• The clubhouse and the lunch are part of the day rather than an add-on, and reviewers describe both at length. A jacket and tie are still worn in the dining room.
• Pace of play is genuinely quick, and visitors who have suffered five-hour rounds elsewhere in Scotland say so with relief.

What comes up against

• Cost is the main barrier. A visitor fourball on one of the two open days runs into four figures for the group, and that alone rules the course out for many golfers.
• Access is restricted to two days a week, with a handicap limit of 24, and the booking has to be arranged well ahead.
• The formality divides people. Those who enjoy the traditions enjoy them a great deal; others find the dress code and the etiquette expectations heavy going.
• It is not the most scenic links on this coast. The sea is present but rarely dramatic, and visitors expecting the drama of Royal Aberdeen or Cruden Bay sometimes come away underwhelmed by the views if not by the golf.

Getting there and when to go

Muirfield is at Gullane in East Lothian, around forty minutes east of Edinburgh and fifty from the airport. The village has three other courses of its own, and North Berwick is ten minutes further, which makes this the densest stretch of good golf in Britain.

The course plays all year, but visitor days are set and the format is fixed. May to September gives the best of the weather and the longest days. Book far ahead and check the current visitor guidance before travelling.

Green fees

Rates, visitor days and the format of play are set by the club, and a fourball tee time is charged as a group rather than per player. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, Wikipedia and published architecture and championship coverage for the history and the design, and the club’s own visitor guidance for access, format and handicap requirements. The opinion section summarises public reviews and player discussions read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we do not reproduce or attribute quotes.

We have not played this course, and nothing here is a substitute for that. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say in what it says. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.